Adding Commentary To Your Game

The following is the runner-up entry from the writing contest held awhile back. I thought this was a fun quirky creative topic.
- Truth
You may occasionally find yourself watching a game of Heroscape. While watching the game can be fun there is another way to make it even more exciting for you and others watching the game. It is something you are familiar with if you watch sports; of course I am talking about commentary.
Now before we get into the nuts and bolts of providing commentary for a Heroscape game we need to set some ground rules and other ways in which you can commentate. First of all at a big tournament providing commentary on someone else's game may not be appropriate. So of course before you provide commentary on any game get permission first. Secondly know your audience when you provide commentary and know when to back off of a situation. Commentary is supposed to add enjoyment to the game not take away from it. Finally I would like to add that commentary goes great with the Valhalla Fighting League (VFL) games (article to be arriving soon) or if you video/disk tape your games.
Ok to have a good commentary experience first of all you have to get some of the cooks out of the kitchen. In all reality you need two commentators for any given game although one extremely awesome well practiced commentator can do it. Three or more is too many and things just get confusing. So the first thing you need to do is find a partner in crime.
Then you two need to sit down and come up with some sweet names for each other. For example when my friend and I provide commentary I become Boss and he becomes known as Big Kat. Why is this important well funny names are exciting and it helps you get into the zone.
Next the two of you need to decide if you are going to use accents or a speaking style. For example someone may want to speak like Howard Cossell or your favorite local sports announcer. Finally and probably most important is you have to have emotion when you commentate. Once you figure out the type of commentator you are going to be have some real emotion or it will just sound kind of dumb.
The next step is the two of you have to decide who is going to handle the play-by-play and who is going to be the specialist/color commentator/analyst. After that you need to decide how you are each going to be. For example the play-by-play commentator is he going to play it very straight allowing his or her partner to come in with the zany material or is s/he going to call everything over the top. Remember you have to have emotion so instead of just reading the next few examples say them out loud in the way you would do it if you were commentating the game. Do not worry about getting them word for word because there would be no script in the real go so just get the jest of the situation. For example
Straight up play-by-play

Now another wrinkle you can throw into the commentary mix comes from our good commentating friends in professional wrestling. Have the play-by-play commentator clearly be rooting for the "good guys"� while the broadcast partner favors the bad guys. How will good and bad be decided? Either stick to the pre-determined Jandar and Utgar separation or just designate one of the players as the good or bad guy. This can provide a lot of humor to the game as well. You can add any additional ideas to your commentating style and you will develop a style naturally the more you commentate. Try recording a battle and then watching it adding commentary to it. Come up with a trademark phrase like John Madden's Boom or something Like "Drake is tearing down houses like they are condemned."� (Note Drake is tearing down houses like they are condemned is probably the worst catch phrase ever and you can surely do better than that.) The most important thing to remember when commentating on a Heroscape game is to have fun. Try to provide some extra excitement to the battle and help other spectators gather around to enjoy a good game of Heroscape and some hilarious commentary.